Beck & Call (16 page)

“Daffodil,” she said.

“Do you wish to use it?”

“Not yet,” she admitted.

“Then push out your pretty bottom. Naughty wives like you need to be warmed up. Knees apart, if you please.”

He tapped her inner thighs with the walking stick. Mia spread them and flushed brighter. The thong that covered her little mound had a noticeable damp spot.

“How nice,” Jake said. “You’re wet already. That will make the job of breaking you easier.”

He stepped around the bed until he stood slightly behind her, giving Damien a clear view. Mia wriggled helplessly in the ties, unable to restrain herself.

Her excitement was seductive.

“Now,” Jake said with obvious relish. “Shall I decide how many lashes you receive, or will you leave that to your husband?”

“I belong to him!”

“Give her four,” Damien said. “She isn’t strong enough for more.”

Jake landed four sharp strikes across the meat of Mia’s buttocks, hard enough to sting but not to leave welts. Damien’s “wife” gasped loudly for each one.

“There,” Jake said, one large hand caressing the curves he’d struck. Stuck in the chair, Damien tensed his own ass in sympathy. “Your husband and I know what that’s done to you. How it’s made you aware of your lustful nature. How you’re wet and hot and dying to be plugged by a good thick cock. Sadly for you, you haven’t earned that privilege yet.”

Close to her now, Jake slid two fingers beneath her sopping thong. Mia squeaked as they rubbed lovingly between her labia.

“You want me,” Jake purred. “You’d kill to be taken by me right now.”

His rubbing fingers pushed into her. Damien held his breath at the wet noise they made. Mia couldn’t stop her neck from arching.

“I’ll resist you,” she promised huskily. “What you’re asking of me is wrong.”

“I’ll show you
wrong
,” Jake said.

He laid the walking stick on the covers in front of her, continuing to work her pussy with his first hand while his second slid up her corset front. As she writhed with pleasure, Mia’s breasts fell free of the low bodice. Damien’s fingernails dug into the gloves he wore. Her breasts were round and pretty and tipped with tight red nipples. Jake pulled one stiffened berry between his thumb and fingers, drawing a groan from her.

Damien could easily imagine squeezing the tender bud himself.

“Don’t,” she begged even as her hips twisted around the fingers that speared her sex.

“‘Don’t’ isn’t your safe word,” Jake replied tauntingly.

He pulled his hands from her without warning, moving to the end of the bed again. Clearly flustered to suddenly not have him stroking her, Mia straightened from her former butt thrust-out position. As she did, her soft sweet breasts settled back into the corset cups.

Damien would admit to regretting that.

“You’re cruel,” she accused.

“I’m honest,” Jake said. “If you want relief, all you have to do is be honest in return. Admit you need me. Admit your husband isn’t enough for you. It’s what he wants. Your supposed virtue is nothing but your pride talking.”

She tossed her hair, her expression gone mulish.

“Very well. I see you need more incentive.” He shrugged free of his suspenders and began unbuttoning his shirt. Mia huffed and turned her head away.

“Watch,” Jake commanded. “Or you won’t like the next caning I give you.”

Damien knew threat was empty, but it did the trick. Mia watched Jake warily as he continued stripping off the garment. The man’s upper body was very nice, his muscles lean and defined. Naked from the waist up, he tossed the shirt away and rolled his broad shoulders. His nipples were dark, their centers pointed with arousal.

When Mia wet her lips, Damien realized he’d done the same thing half a second ahead of her.

“Fine,” she said. “Your chest is attractive. That doesn’t mean I’m surrendering.”

“I’m not done yet,” Jake said smugly.

His hands went to the waist of his trousers, obviously about to undo them. Damien’s grip tightened on the arms of his chair. He’d been clear about no full nudity and no intercourse tonight. Was Jake going to defy him? If he was, did Damien really want to object? The hump that pushed out Jake’s zipper was impressive, and Damien did have an interest in seeing it. Perhaps he
wanted
Jake to convince Mia to take him here and now.

Maybe her gratification didn’t need more delay.

He was running out of chances to call a halt. Jake popped his top trouser button and followed with the rest. White linen undershorts swelled into the opening, lifted by the rise of what they were covering. Jake rubbed his thumb and fingers over the straining cloth. The material was fine enough for his veins to show. Aroused by that, Damien bit the inside of his cheek.

Mia betrayed her longing with a small moan.

“This is what you’ve been dreaming of,” Jake said. “What you fantasized about even as your husband covered you on your wedding night. You want us both to take you. You want us to take turns fucking you.”

Though her head shook from side to side, she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze from his hand’s motion. Jake noticed this, of course.

“Maybe I need to show you more,” he said.

With a quick digging motion, he eased his erection free. The thing was a cudgel, its hardened state vaguely threatening. Pre-come glistened on the head, evidence of how wrought up Jake was. The tip of Damien’s cock suddenly felt wet too. How would he feel with a hand wrapped around and exposing it? In that moment, Jake’s hand or Mia’s or even his own appealed.

His whole body prickled to think of it.

Mia swallowed. “Jake—”

Jake’s hand moved, stunning her to silence.

“That’s right,” the stable master crooned. “Watch me stroke myself. I know you wish these were your hands. Hell, I know you wish your pussy were rubbing over me. I’d fill you just like he does. I’d ride you like I exercise his expensive horses, long and hard and sweaty until you can’t help but scream your pleasure. By the time I spill, he’ll be so excited he’ll take you too. You’ll never tire us both. Together, we’ll fuck you right into submission.”

The hoarseness of Jake’s voice increased as he slowly stroked his cock up and down. His lack of inhibition was fascinating. He behaved as if he’d forgotten Damien—though Damien was only feet away. “What’ll it be, milady? Are you ready to beg me to take you yet?”

Mia squirmed within the ropes that held her arms outspread, looking as if Jake truly were torturing her. She’d pressed her lips tight together to keep the truth inside. Jake stepped closer, his legs bumping the footboard. Mia’s enraptured gaze followed his reddened cock to its new location.

The next time Jake’s fingers approached the bulbous crest, they gave it an extra squeeze.

Damien knew exactly how sensitive he was there.

“This is too much for you, isn’t it?” Jake’s insinuating murmur was hot as smoke. “I bet you want to say your safe word like before. I bet you’re terrified of what you’ll agree to if I don’t stop tempting you.”

Damien’s frontal lobes belatedly came on line. “What do you mean ‘like before?’ Isn’t this the first time you’ve jacked off in front of her? Mia claimed she hadn’t seen you naked yet.”

Even as he asked, he knew the answer. Something had changed since their lunch in his office. The pair was too in synch not to have ripped through another barrier to intimacy.

Jake could have denied the charge but shrugged. “We might have played a bit in her shower last night.”

“We have a contract. You agreed not to advance your relationship on your own.”

“So I saw her naked. And she saw me. We were just fooling around.” Jake’s sly grin said he knew it had been more. He was goading Damien. Like an unruly sub testing for cracks in his master’s limits, Jake
wanted
to be called out.

Under normal circumstances, Damien wouldn’t have let himself get sucked in. He’d simply have walked away. The problem was he liked Jake and Mia. They felt realer than anyone he’d played with before. As to that, he felt realer when he was with them. He’d didn’t want this game cut short.

So show him your limits
, he told himself.
Let Jake know what happens when he ignores the rules you set.

Though his heart beat faster, he forced his face to go frigid. “On your knees.”

Jake’s dark eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“You’ve broken your word. You need to perform penance.”

“To you.” Jake’s tone was derisive.

Damien was aware of Jake’s military training. Despite outweighing the other man, nothing Damien had picked up from his sparring partner would enable him to defeat the former operative. His sole advantage was his ability not to telegraph his intent. He backhanded Jake across the cheek before the other man guessed the blow was coming.

“No!” Mia cried in genuine distress, not realizing the gesture was symbolic. She wrenched at her bonds as if she’d fling herself at Damien.

“It’s all right,” Jake soothed her. He hadn’t reacted except to touch his face. In truth, he’d barely flinched. Damien made a mental note concerning the man’s exceedingly cool temper.

“He
hit
you,” Mia protested.

“No harder than I hit you. Look, he didn’t leave a mark.”

Mia frowned at the place he showed her. “It’s red.”

“Enough,” Damien said. “Jake, do you agree to submit to me?”

“I’ll do it,” Mia said, still trying to shield her friend.

Damien shook his head. “It has to be Jake. You’re his sub. He’s responsible for both your infractions. Understand, this isn’t about forcing him to do things he doesn’t want. It’s about him bowing to my will. If you’re worried, he can share your safe word.”

Jake gave Damien a level look—and not because he didn’t want to say
daffodil
. “It’s not my nature to submit.”

Damien’s random fantasy about Mia and the bellhop came back to him. “No man’s nature is all one thing or another. The real question is do you wish this arrangement to continue?”

He knew what he wanted Jake to answer, though he did his utmost to conceal it. Flashing one’s cards prematurely didn’t win poker games.

Jake’s jaw worked, his unusually blue gaze boring into Damien’s.

“All right,” he said at last. “What penance do you give me?”

THE
CEO wasn’t the cool cucumber he pretended. Mia couldn’t mistake his relief at Jake’s answer.

Her relief that they hadn’t gone too far and shot their plan to hell was short-lived.

Damien was standing now, as close to her as Jake. His perusal of her trussed-up body sent tingles along her skin. “Mia brought you to climax in my office. It seems only fair that you return the favor. Lay her down on the bed and pleasure her with your mouth.”

Mia had two strong but contradictory reactions. The first was a stab of pleasurable anticipation that shot directly between her legs. The second was embarrassment. She and Jake had barely kissed on the mouth so far.

“Um,” she said dubiously.

Damien’s steady tricolor eyes pinned hers. “Do you dislike receiving oral sex?”

She fought not to squirm and lost. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. I’ve only had it done to me once.”

“By him?” Damien’s tone was sharp.

“By my first boyfriend. I don’t think he was really into it.”

Damien’s eyes creased faintly with amusement. “I don’t believe Mr. Reed suffers from that handicap.”

“But it’s … it’s
personal
,” Mia said.

“Yes,” Damien agreed. “Personal and exciting and very much a sign of trust between two people. Not unlike being naked in front of a new partner. Or do you count that as ‘just fooling around’ too?”

“I guess not,” Mia admitted, surprised by his insight. “Not for a woman anyway. Men don’t seem to mind taking off their clothes as much.”

“So this is appropriate. You engaged in an intimacy behind my back. Now you should experience this one in my presence.” He must have seen her nose wrinkle. “I won’t judge you, Mia. I think your body is beautiful. I sincerely hope Jake has the skill to drive you to great heights. I also hope you’ll trust me with your uncensored reactions.”

“What about you?” she asked impulsively. “Are you trusting us with yours?”

Caution shadowed his eyes. “That’s not our agreement.”

Shouldn’t it have been? Was this truly how he wanted to live his life? She had enough self-control to keep the words inside. Maybe Damien knew this and was grateful. He stroked her cheek lightly with one finger, the gloves he wore preventing his skin from touching hers. The effect the contact had on both of them was interesting. His pupils dilated, and her shoulders shook with a small shiver.

For just a second, she thought maybe he wanted to touch her more. If he did, he didn’t give in to the urge. His arm dropped, though his face remained close to hers. His breath smelled of cinnamon.

“You know Jake will make you enjoy this,” he said softly.

He was too smooth for her to argue with. She let out a resigned sigh.

Damien chuckled and turned to Jake. “Mr. Reed, perhaps you should put away that marvel of hydraulics for the time being. I assume you can get … my wife past her embarrassment.”

Mia guessed they were back to role-playing. Another hot shudder vibrated her tailbone. She liked the story Jake had made up for them. She watched with interest as he tucked his cock back into his pants. Though he was mainly still erect, he was businesslike about it.

“Getting Mia over her embarrassment will be my pleasure,” he promised.

He reached for her hand, which she’d clenched unthinkingly around the braided silk. “Relax,” he said, giving her fingers a coaxing rub.

She loved his touch—and the gentle sureness with which he moved her wrist. To her surprise, what she’d thought was a complicated knot turned out to unwrap easily. Jake performed the same trick on her second hand. Her wrists were still attached to the posts, but her arms could move more than before.

“Turn around,” he said. “Lie down on the covers.”

He helped her obey. When she’d finished, her hands lay above her head, held there by the slackened ropes. She felt abandoned in that position, as if she really were a Victorian gentleman’s lustful wife. Fires kindled in Jake’s eyes as he looked down at her. Mia’s breathing deepened.